MediaBistro said the AP's new rule would lead to "tone-deaf" tweeting, as the rule "goes against the accepted syntax of Twitter...The organization is clearly still struggling with dealing with the open and opinionated nature of social media when it comes to their members, who, in their opinion, must remain as objective and unbiased as possible."

The AP is facing backlash because of the retweet guidelines, which have been "savaged as draconian by a number of journalist tweeters," who say the AP just doesn't get Twitter, explained The Atlantic, adding, "Hell hath no fury like a journalist who can't freely retweet." The Atlantic compiled a list of journalist tweets about the guidelines, including that of The New York Times's media critic David Carr, who tweeted, "AP to staff: Don't retweet anything with an opinion. http://bit.ly/rKbgDE Good luck with that."